Combat Manual: Mercenaries

OnMarch 30, 2016

Some soldiers fight for king and country, some for honor and glory, others for liberty or loved ones. We’ll fight for that too, whatever your cause, as long as the check clears.

For over forty centuries, mercenaries have plied their trade and been instrumental in toppling empires or holding the tides of war at bay. And as mankind expanded to the stars, soldiers of fortune rose to new heights of power. Business is booming, yet along with those riches comes a dangerous life and the scorn of many who see only filthy lucre-warriors. It’s a dangerous life, but as long as you keep your ’Mech intact and your bottom line balanced, the universe is yours!

BattleTech Combat Manual: Mercenaries contains information on the soldier-for-hire trade and their place in the Inner Sphere. This manual takes a look at some of the most renowned mercenaries of the 31st century, detailing their histories, tactics, unit crests, paint schemes, and notable personnel. This Alpha Strike expansion includes special rules for unique character abilities, faction-specific rules, force-building, and a mini Technical Readout—everything you need to field your favorite mercenary command on the tabletop or create your own.

eBook Availability Combat Manual: Mercenaries is available from the following eBook/PDF vendors:

Author Victor Milan passed away Feb. 13 in Albuquerque, N.M. following a short battle with cancer, his friends and fellow writers confirmed. He was 63.

Milan is best remembered by BattleTech fans as the author of three novels featuring the Camacho’s Caballeros mercenary unit, “Close Quarters,” “Hearts of Chaos,” and “Black Dragon” as well as a BattleCorps short story, “Callie’s Call.” He also penned a pair of Mechwarrior: Dark Age novels, “Flight of the Falcon” and “A Rending of Falcons.”

"News of Vic's passing really made my head spin this morning," BattleTech Line Developer Brent Evans said. "Victor was BattleTech family, and I always felt his contributions to the universe were huge. He had a way of bringing characters and conflicts to life that really resonated with the reader. I loved the variety of the Caballeros, the savagery of the Falcon books, and the voices he crafted for all those wonderfully flawed characters. In a universe of titans, he was one of the greats."

“When we relaunched the BattleTech fiction line, there were only a few names on my list for previous authors I wanted to bring back into the fold,” Helfers said. "Victor’s was near the very top. Although I knew him primarily through other IPs, the palpable fan reaction to the announcement of his return to BT fiction made me realize that we were doing something very special with him, and his excitement at revisiting the BT universe was just as great.

“Sadly, Victor passed away before he could finish his take on ‘Case White,’ which I’m sure would have been incredible. We have a partial manuscript in hand, however, and after a re-evaluation of the situation, I plan to take steps to have it completed by another author so we can bring Victor’s last BattleTech story to the fans. I just wish I could have helped him shepherd the rest of the novel to completion. And unfortunately, we will also have no more BattleTech stories from one of the true masters of the BT universe. R.I.P. Victor."

A prolific author with approximately 100 novels and numerous short stories to his name, he won the Prometheus Award in 1986 for “Cybernetic Samurai,” and was a central contributor to the long-running “Wild Cards” shared universe. More recently, he gained recognition for his series “The Dinosaur Lords."

A Twitter post by James S.A. Corey, the pen name of "The Expanse" writers Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham, attributed Milan’s death to a “short but tough fight with cancer.”

In a blog post, George R.R. Martin remembered Milan’s “warmth, his wit, and his talent,” and credited him with being a key force in the creation of “Wild Cards.”

“In a sense he was the father of Wild Cards,” Martin wrote. “It was Vic who gave me the Superworld game as a birthday present back in 1983, and it was those long long nights of playing Superworld that eventually inspired me to start Wild Cards. Vic was an integral part of the series right from the very start, and the characters he created were among our most popular.”